This invention relates to a connector comprising a lever, wherein the connector is configured to be mated with a mating connector when the lever is operated to pivot.
For example, this type of connectors is disclosed in JP-A 2008-41417 or JP-A 2008-204718, contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The connector of JP-A 2008-41417 or JP-A 2008-204718 comprises a housing and a lever. The housing is formed with an accommodating portion. The lever is accommodated in the accommodating portion so as to be pivotable between a first position and a second position.
In detail, the lever of the connector of JP-A 2008-41417 or JP-A 2008-204718 is pivotable between the first position and the second position through a predetermined position. The connector of JP-A 2008-41417 or JP-A 2008-204718 is tentatively matable (i.e. partially matable) with the mating connector when the lever is located in the vicinity of the first position (including the first position). After the mating connector is tentatively mated with the connector, the lever is operated to pivot toward the second position so that the mating connector and the connector are (completely) mated with each other. On the other hand, when the lever pivots toward the second position beyond the predetermined position, the mating connector is unable to be tentatively mated with the connector. Accordingly, it is impossible to (completely) mate the mating connector with the connector. Hereinafter, the predetermined position (i.e. a boundary for the mating connector to be tentatively matable with the connector) is referred to as a “third position”. As can be seen from the above description, the third position is located between the first position and the second position. The mating connector is tentatively matable with the connector when the lever is located between the first position and the third position.
The connector of JP-A 2008-41417 or JP-A 2008-204718 is provided with a resilient lock portion. The resilient lock portion regulates a position of the lever so as to certainly make the connector and the mating connector to be tentatively mated with each other. More specifically, the resilient lock portion is configured so as to temporarily receive the lever (i.e. temporarily lock the lever) at the third position when the lever located in the vicinity of the first position is forced to pivot toward the second position. In other words, the resilient lock portion temporarily prevents the lever from pivoting toward the second position beyond the third position. The resilient lock portion is resiliently deformed by the mating connector when the mating connector is tentatively mated with the connector so that the lever locked by the resilient lock portion is released from the resilient lock portion.
Moreover, the connector of JP-A 2008-204718 is configured so that a part of the lever (lever-side abutment portion) is brought into abutment with a part formed on a front end of the housing (housing-side abutment portion) when the lever is located at the first position. As for the connector of JP-A 2008-204718, the abutment of the lever-side abutment portion with the housing-side abutment portion prevents the lever from pivoting beyond the first position so as to be apart from the second position.
When the aforementioned lever is installed in the housing during the assembly process of the connector, it is necessary to prevent the lever and the housing (especially, the accommodating portion of the housing) from being damaged. Accordingly, it is preferable that the accommodating portion has a flexible upper portion (or top plate). However, if the upper portion of the accommodating portion has flexibility, the lever might be removed from the housing after installed within the accommodating portion. Therefore, the connector is required to have a structure which prevents the lever installed within the accommodating portion from coming out of the accommodating portion while allowing the lever to be easily installed into the accommodating portion during the assembly process of the connector. In other words, the connector is required to have a structure considering a force applied to the upper portion of the accommodating portion from the lever (i.e. a force applied to the lever).
The lever is located between the second position and the third position when the lever is installed in the housing. Especially, the lever is located at the second position by the factory setting. The lever located at the second position is operated to pivot toward the first position beyond the third position so that the connector becomes tentatively matable. The resilient lock portion is required to be resiliently deformed easily when the lever passes through the third position. On the other hand, the resilient lock portion is required not to be resiliently deformed easily when the resilient lock portion prevents the lever from pivoting toward the second position beyond the third position. The connector is required to have a structure which satisfies the aforementioned two requirements which seem to be inconsistent with each other. In other words, the connector is required to have a structure considering a force applied from the lever to the resilient lock portion (i.e. a force applied to the lever).
The accommodating portion and the lever of the aforementioned connector are formed with a pivot shaft and a shaft receiver, respectively. Thus formed lever may be formed with a guide channel. The guide channel guides the pivot shaft to the shaft receiver of the lever so that the lever can be easily installed in the accommodating portion by the guide channel. Thus formed guide channel is located at a front side of the housing when the lever is installed in the accommodating portion. Therefore, it is desirable that the lever does not receive a backward force from the front side of the housing. However, it is unavoidable that the lever receives the backward force from the front side of the housing when the housing-side abutment portion (i.e. a part which determines a pivoting limit of the lever) is located at the front side of the housing like the connector shown in JP-A 2008-204718. When the lever receives the force, a part of the lever, which located at the front side of the housing, is lifted. The lever has the guide channel so that the shaft receiver of the lever may be easily removed from the pivot shaft by a small upward movement of the lever.
A distance between an operated portion of the lever and a pivoting center of the lever is required to be longer than a distance between a pinion formed on the lever and the pivoting center of the lever so as to mate the connector with the mating connector by operating the lever with a small force. The lever should be configured not to protrude from the housing undesirably long so that a possibility that the lever is damaged is lowered as much as possible. There is also a need not to make the lever undesirably large. If the part which determines the pivoting limit of the lever is formed on the front end of the housing like the connector of JP-A 2008-204718, it is difficult to make a distance between the pivoting center of the lever and the lever-side abutment portion long while satisfying the aforementioned requirements.
On the other hand, If the part which determines the pivoting limit of the lever is formed on the rear end of the housing, the part may interfere the lever when the lever is installed into the accommodating portion.
As can be seen from the above description, the connector is required to have a structure considering a force applied from the lever to the part which determines the pivoting limit of the lever (i.e. a force applied to the lever).